Nut upsuser - Dec 2015 - Server not shutting down before power loss

HI thanks for replying and helping.

I've now ran the UPS down a few times from full charge to test and I
don't
think it's the batteries or a problem with the UPS itself. I can watch it
go from 100% right down to 1% over 20 minutes etc and then the power gets
so low that everything just powers off!

I think it's down to Nut not actually shutting down my server that is my
problem... The battery on the UPS seems to hold plenty long enough from a
full charge, giving lots of time for a shutdown. How can I get the shutdown
to occur early, say when the battery is 50% to play it safe and just test
and make sure that nut is even sending a command to shutdown and why it
isn't happening?

You'll have to excuse me as I've not used nut before, but I'm sure
it's an
Ubuntu or nut config problem here and that the shutdown sequence isn't
happening and not my UPS...

Thanks once again for any help to get this working. It would be fantastic
if it would just shutdown early on LOWBATT rather than waiting until the
very last minute and me not knowing it's going to make it or the shutdown
not evening happening!

On 29 December 2015 at 00:38, Julian H. Stacey <jhs at berklix.com> wrote:
> > Hi I hope someone can please help.
> >
> > I have an Ubuntu Server running 14.04.3 LTS and using an APC ES550 UPS
> > connected via USB.
> >
> > I've installed Nut and can see it does monitor the UPS correctly
and give
> > the correct stats with battery percentage etc.
> >
> > But on doing a "real" test and unplugging the UPS from the
power supply,
> > after watching the battery drop slowly suddenly the server just lost
> power
> > along with the UPS and monitor. No graceful shutdown and I didn't
see any
> > attempt at a warning or shutdown in any way.
> >
> > Now I realise my UPS is no use at all if my system doesn't
shutdown.
> >
> > Can anyone please help me get this to work as I'm vulnerable at
present.
>
> Chuckle. I remember a previous New Year I said "Watch This"
pulled the
> plug,
> & what visitors expected & I did Not ... Happened ... All disc spun
down.
> Demo effect ! I hadnt checked batteries for a while.
>
> As ever, as I & others have commented over years in archives,
> first disconnect batteries & check voltage of each battery, - dead
easy,
>
> Then much more important: calculate internal resistance of each battery.
> Batteries go bad after some years, even on trickle charge.
> Measure voltage drop when driving a load such as 1 or a few car
> headlamp bulbs in parallel. Then its simply Ohms law V=IR,
>
> If voltage drops from say 13V to 11V & if you use 1 headlamp that
> uses maybe 4 amps, then 13-11 / 4 = 2/4 = 0.5 which is on high side,
> you dont want higher, better 0.3 or less.
>
> Your UPS for PC's will prob. want a lot more than 4 amps, so low
> internal resistance is critical to good UPS performance.
>
> If you decide to use computer as your measurement load instead or
> a car headlamp bulb, remember the static inverter is still On,
> generating 110 or 240 Volts, dont kill yourself or blow stuff up
> while measuring :-)
>
> > Nut Version: 2.7.1-1ubuntu1
> > Nut installation method was just through apt from standard Ubuntu
repos.
> >
> > Thanks very much indeed.
> >
>
> Cheers,
> Julian
> --
> Julian Stacey,  BSD Linux Unix Sys. Eng. Consultant Munich
> http://berklix.com
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On Dec 29, 2015, at 6:33 AM, Jonah Naylor <jonahnaylor at gmail.com>
wrote:
> 
> HI thanks for replying and helping.
> 
> I've now ran the UPS down a few times from full charge to test and I
don't think it's the batteries or a problem with the UPS itself. I can
watch it go from 100% right down to 1% over 20 minutes etc and then the power
gets so low that everything just powers off!
When it does that, do you see the current status ("ups.status" line in
upsc output) go from "OL" (online) to "OB" (on battery) to
"OB LB"  (on battery/low battery)?
> I think it's down to Nut not actually shutting down my server that is
my problem... The battery on the UPS seems to hold plenty long enough from a
full charge, giving lots of time for a shutdown. How can I get the shutdown to
occur early, say when the battery is 50% to play it safe
You didn't mention the output of upsrw (which has a few settings for
controlling when "LB" is set), but you can also synthesize the low
battery event:

http://www.networkupstools.org/docs/man/ups.conf.html#_ups_fields and search for
"ignorelb"
> and just test and make sure that nut is even sending a command to shutdown
and why it isn't happening?
For your particular situation of one UPS and one master system, this should shut
the system down without waiting for the "OB LB" status:

http://www.networkupstools.org/docs/man/upsmon.html#_forced_shutdowns
> You'll have to excuse me as I've not used nut before, but I'm
sure it's an Ubuntu or nut config problem here and that the shutdown
sequence isn't happening and not my UPS...
Any other details you can provide on the configuration will make it easier to
isolate the problem.

-- 
Charles Lepple
clepple at gmail

> HI thanks for replying and helping.
> 
> I've now ran the UPS down a few times from full charge to test and I
don't
> think it's the batteries or a problem with the UPS itself. I can watch
it
> go from 100% right down to 1% over 20 minutes etc and then the power gets
> so low that everything just powers off!
> 
> I think it's down to Nut not actually shutting down my server that is
my
> problem... The battery on the UPS seems to hold plenty long enough from a
> full charge, giving lots of time for a shutdown. How can I get the shutdown
> to occur early, say when the battery is 50% to play it safe and just test
> and make sure that nut is even sending a command to shutdown and why it
> isn't happening?
> 
> You'll have to excuse me as I've not used nut before, but I'm
sure it's an
> Ubuntu or nut config problem here and that the shutdown sequence isn't
> happening and not my UPS...
> 
> Thanks once again for any help to get this working. It would be fantastic
> if it would just shutdown early on LOWBATT rather than waiting until the
> very last minute and me not knowing it's going to make it or the
shutdown
> not evening happening!
> 
> On 29 December 2015 at 00:38, Julian H. Stacey <jhs at berklix.com>
wrote:
OK, as battery is good,; I guess you'r right, hunt for a missing
permission somewhere, lack of an SUID zero (root) on install of
shutdown script, or lack of /usr/local/bin in path ? something of
that nature.

I'll bow out out, & leave answering to list members more proficient
with Nut than me (I'm FreeBSD based, & not configured Nut lately &
I've a swamped To Do list).

Good luck.

Cheers,
Julian
--
Julian Stacey,  BSD Linux Unix Sys. Eng. Consultant Munich http://berklix.com
 Reply After previous text to preserve context, as in a play script.
 Indent previous text with > 		Insert new lines before 80 chars.
 Use plain text, Not quoted-printable, Not HTML, Not base64, Not MS.doc.